Inline electrical connectors tend to be of two basic types: the screw-type connector or the bayonet-type connector. The screw-type connector incorporates mating threads on the plug and socket portions of the connector and requires rotation of one or the other to connect the sets of electrical cables together in a sealed manner. Connection and disconnection are labor-intensive and require the application of a predetermined fastening torque to achieve an environmental seal or overcoming of this torque in disconnecting the pair of connector members. The fastening torque may undergo unintended loosening when the connector is subject to vibration forces resulting in loss of the connector seal and interruption of the pin and socket connections. Connection and disconnection of the two threaded connector members is also relatively slow and time consuming. The bayonet-type connection, on the other hand, is easily and quickly formed or disconnected. However, the coupled members in a bayonet connection are more easily separated and the connection broken than in a threaded connector. In addition, the bayonet connection is less adapted for the formation of high strength, tight seals than the threaded connection. Finally, the threaded and bayonet approaches are mutually exclusive, as one cannot be connected to the other which, in some cases, is inefficient and wasteful.
Recent efforts in this area have given rise to the use of segmented thread arrangements on each of the two connecting members which can be joined by pushing one connecting member onto the other in an axial direction, followed by rotation of one or both of the connecting members to place their respective thread arrangements in mutual engagement. Thus, this approach includes pushing the two connector members together as in the bayonet approach, followed by relative rotation between the two connector members to provide their threaded engagement. This combined approach does not afford all of the advantages of both approaches taken individually. For example, rotation of one or both of the connecting members is required for connection, while the integrity and strength of the connection is limited by the partial thread arrays that must be on both connecting members. In addition, the connector's seal is limited because of the hand torque requirement to achieve the environmental seal. One approach in this area utilizes plastic segmented threads that wear after a few couplings and uncouplings of the pair of connector members or lose their ability to “spring back” because the elastic limit of the plastic has been reached. The present invention addresses and overcomes these limitations by providing a push-type connection resulting in full thread engagement between the two connecting members that use a standard thread.